Munching in München

 
     In Munich, we discovered a sad truth: Germans do not believe in vegetables.   We had suspected this after our Berlin restaurant excursions included no more than bratwurst (sausage) and schnitzel (fried breaded pork), but Munich confirmed our suspicions.  Vegetables are not a thing in Germany, unless they are put on top of bratwurst in the form of ketchup or mustard.  The vegetarians in our group were a picture of noble suffering, eating bread and tiny side salads as they bemoaned their fate.
    We arrived in Munich on a Sunday night after a grueling 7-hour bus ride and trekked to the hostel.  After dropping all our stuff off, we decided to head over to Springfest, a mini Octoberfest.  Our arrival during the festival was actually a complete coincidence, but once we discovered what was happening, we were pretty excited.  A real German festival, with beer and leiderhosen and German things?  We could not wait for the impending culture shock.
      What we actually got was, essentially, an American carnival with lots more beer and the occasional leather pants, called leiderhosen.  There were the traditional vomit-comit rides and cotton candy stands, and (of course) the obligatory bratwurst stands.  All of the rides actually blasted American pop music, which was disconcerting, not to mention annoying. The main features, however, were the biergartens--essentially enormous tents where everyone drinks beer.

Ferris wheel! We rode it; too expensive, but it was in Germany, so that made it cool.

What.

The biergarten itself!

    We wandered around, gawked at some leiderhosen, ate some bratwurst, and finally entered the biergarten.  Now, in Berlin we were surprised because they served beer by the half-liter, which we thought was somewhat ridiculous.  At Springfest, they serve it by the LITER.
     Needless to say, my companions were fully satisfied with just one liter.  I almost wished I actually enjoyed beer, just for the satisfaction of being able to say that I drank a liter of German beer.  Alas, my taste buds are too finicky, and I remained beer-less.

The next day, we learned the chant of Munich middle-schoolers.  It goes something like this: DISCO DISCO BOOM BOOM. DISCO DISCO BOOM BOOM.
    We were taking the U-Bahn towards the central square to hop on a free tour, and we accidentally sat down in Middle School Land.  As soon as the train started up, they started their strange mantra: "Disco disco boom boom.  Disco disco boom boom." and chanted it for the whole ride.  While this particular combination of English words has absolutely no meaning to me, they persevered in their chanting with an admirable dedication.  I'd like to think that I now have proof that middle-schoolers are strange around the world.
   We arrived in Marienplatz, the famous central square in Munich, and hopped on the free walking tour.  It began with a visit to the Glockenspiel, the largest cuckoo clock in the world.  We walked around the city and learned about some of the history of Munich.  The land was protected by a regent until Napolean married his niece to one of the regents of Munich.  At the engagement celebration, he remembered that he had promised to marry her to a king, so right then and there he pronounced the regent a king.  Later on in history, Munich was where Hitler started the Nazi party; it was his favorite German city.  During WWII, the city got heavily bombed, and afterwards there was a massive rebuilding effort to reconstruct things exactly as they had been before.  They ran out of money, though, and for the palace, one entire wall is made out of stone where they drew the decorations and carvings onto the wall.

New Town Hall in Marienplatz.  The cuckoo clock is right in the middle of the tower.  The statue on the left is a statue of St. Mary, made of pure gold.

The Glockenspiel itself!

Famous statue of Juliet from Romeo & Juliet.  Apparently, if you rub the statue, you get good luck in love....guess where you're supposed to rub?

Crazy lavender hair on one of the former rulers of Munich.

Legend has it if your foot fits the imprint, you might be the devil. I guess Mommy was right...

    After our walking tour, we had lunch at the enormous farmer's market called Viktualenmarket, and my companions took advantage of the liters of beer.

The beer is bigger than her head. Just sayin'.

    The English Gardens were only a few U-Bahn stops away, so we headed up there for a few hours.  The English Gardens are unequivocally gorgeous.  It's enormous complex of grounds and gardens and cool little structures.  I could have spent all day there.

The Temple of Apollo.

Little pond in the middle of the park.

The man in black started feeding the birds, and they swarmed.

    We met one of Breanna's friends from school for dinner at beer hall.  Prompted by the sight of everyone else ordering beer, I decided to give this beer thing a go.  Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.  Maybe it would even be drinkable.
    Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Even this special "fruity" beer still tasted like beer.  I eventually managed to get the others to drink my share, and left feeling that my beer-tasting skills are very inadequate.
   After dinner, Breanna's friend brought us down by the river, and we walked by the water in the moonlight. It was beautiful and serene; I never wanted to leave.

Our final day in Munich, we paid a visit to Dachau, the concentration camp nearby....